One hit, one miss

I made this a few days ago, but never got around to posting it…because I had a few issues along the way…so in case you thought all my recipes ended in success, here’s a bit of a reality check.

I got this acorn squash at the farmer’s market.

Issue #1 occurred with my lack of knife skills (slash intimidation with big shiny metal). If you feel comfortable making a crushing blow down on a squash, more power to you, but I’m not quite there yet in my culinary career.

As a result, my cut ended up being slightly off center leaving me with a 70/30 spilt squash (rather than the even 50/50 cut I was going for). You may be thinking this isn’t that big of a deal (and you’d be right, it wasn’t). But for tutorial sake (and true squash baking perfection), having equally shaped/sized halves will allow them to cook uniformly. Instead, I had to take the smaller portion out of the oven earlier, because it wasn’t as thick and therefore didn’t need to cook as long as the larger portion.

I’ll get back to that later though…because now I want to turn my attention to the seeds.

I love roasting pumpkin seeds, so I figured I shouldn’t let the squash ones go to waste.

1/2 tsp NuNaturalsliquid stevia (alternatively, you could use 1 tsp of vegan sugar)

*As a disclaimer, I did receive the Tropical Traditions Gold Labelcoconut oil from the company to review. Point blank, after one taste, I am already in love with it. I can’t wait to share more recipes with you guys.

Mix all the ingredient up in a bowl and then spread them onto a baking sheet with cooking spray.

Here’s where issue #2 reared it’s ugly head.

Oops!

The apartment went from smelling of heavenly coconut bliss to completely reeking. What a disaster. In case you were wondering, this was after just 8 minutes under the broiler.

So what did I learn?

Toast your seeds with the oven on 400 and have patience. Don’t use the broiler because they will char like a vampire in the sun. Once you pre-heat the oven to 400, it will only take 10-20 minutes for the seeds to brown. Toss them a few times to make sure they get even exposure. There’s always next time…

Now back to the squash.

Place each “half” face down in ~1 inch of water and put in a 400 degree oven.

After ~45 minutes they should get soft enough to pierce with a fork. That’s how you can tell if they are done. Depending on how mushy you like your squash (or what you are planning to do with it), you can keep cooking it as long as you want. Since I was planning on stuffing the acorn squash halves, I kept them slightly less mushy than I typically like.

Can you see the fork prong marks?

I let them cool while I prepped the inside stuffing.

Wheat Berry Stuffing (yields way more than can fit in the acorn squash)

After everything is mixed up separately, scoop it into the squash and either (a) put it back in the oven for a few minutes, or (b) go the lazy route (yes, please!) and pop it in the microwave for a quick minute.

Voila!

The combo of hummus, apple cider vinegar, and nutritional yeast is one of my favorites ever. It makes for a bangin’ savory sauce with a delicious cheese-like flavor.

I chopped the larger portion in half to facilitate the grubbing process.

The smaller portion was more of a mess to eat, but whatever, I made it work. I’m such a trooper. 😉

I polished off the leftover stuffing on the side and it was the perfect fall dish. I love stuffing squash. I’ve tried several kinds of squash and Delicata and Butternut are my favorites. What’s your favorite squash?

If you’re interested, here are a few stuffed squash recipes I’ve made before:

Ahahah.. your black seeds made me laugh real hard. I just bought an acorn squash yesterday–can’t wait to make it. I will have to make sure to go for a 50/50 ratio. I don’t know what my favorite squash is.. i can’t pick.

I have burned countless batches of seeds over the years. My oven is on the fritz right now, so this weekend I massacred a batch of black walnuts I was attempting to toast in our outdoor cob oven. My neighbor was not amused by the resulting smoke and scorch!
Cool dressing combo – I’m a hardcore apple cider vinegar imbiber, so i’ll have to give it a go.

When I cut squash, I’m always afraid the squash will roll, and I’ll cut my hand off. I’m scared every time – but the product is well worth the fear. Also, I can’t wait to try that humms, vinegar, nooch sauce – holy yum.

Hi! I’m Elise. Welcome to Hungry Hungry Hippie! This site has been many things in the past - but today it's a place for me to share allergy-friendly recipes, quick and easy family meals, and whatever else I happen to capture on film.